Flash

We are very pleased to report that we have arrived safely in the Virgin Islands.  We picked up a mooring in Francis Bay, off St. John in the US Virgin Islands.  Our last day on the open seas saw light air with no sailing – motoring for the past 24 hours with a breeze on the nose.  But, it is …

Flash

I am happy to report that we are closing on the Virgin Islands.  We are now 145 miles from Jost Van Dyke (the crew’s choice on landfall – (what with Foxy’s bar and restaurant and a pretty beach).  We shouod arrive tomorrow evening.  Our trip overall has been slower than normal with heading winds, and light downwind sailing.  We have …

Flash

This Thursday evening finds us 468 miles from Tortola (or 752 miles east of Ft. Lauderdale and 455 miles north of San Juan).  We have finally found some favorable wind, and boy is it strong.  Winds today have been in the upper 20 to 30 kt range, and should be that and maybe stronger tomorrow.  Winds are form the NE …

Flash

We are continuing along fine,with good winds yesterday for brisk sailing at 8.5 to 11 kts (some higher bursts) and lighter winds today requiring motor sailing and speeds of only 6 to  6.5 kts.  We have had continued increases in temperatures, from a low of 37 Saturday night to temps of 68 today – very pleasant.  Low tonight will probably …

Flash

We are happy to report that all is well aboard Flash on our ocean adventure to the Caribbean.  From our SPOT reports you can see our location at the time of our transmission.  Click on the following to see a chart with all transmitted positions – sort of a tracking of our progress.  Save the page for future reference.  (Next …

Lady

We just wanted to let you all know how much we appreciated all that you contributed to our voyage from Hampton to Virgin Gorda. Linda and Bill – what an amazing amount of time you put into getting all the boats and sponsors; parties at Hampton, and how great to have a free mooring to BEYC for as long as …

Aria I

Aria 1 made it safely to Puerto Rico without any major weather impacts once the Noreaster blew through.  Chris’ weather updates were helpful as well as the wx sharing received from fellow rallyiers enroute. Hopefully in future rallys we will be able to participate more fully without mother nature being so capricious as this year Thanks again for all your …

Celebration-Kauffmann

Hello, YEA!!! We got into Virgin Gorda late afternoon yesterday. Tired, salty and slightly bruised. We pulled into the Bitter End Yacht Club and grabbed a mooring about 5pm, had icy cold beer and popcorn for dinner and were in bed by 8. 12 days and 1365 miles. I’m hoping it’s like childbirth, where after awhile, I’ll think ‘that wasn’t …

Magic III

Magic III arrived Road Town, BVI on Monday, Nov 19 @ 09:30 AST. Crew & boat is fine & well. We logged 1496 NM in 10 days. The last 3 days were tough as wind was mainly on the nose  (SE). We had 2 issues on the passage, a leaky rudder post packing gland and the automatic bilge pump quit …

Island Retreat

Island Retreat has safely arrived in the caribbean. Our SPOT quit working on day 1, but we had a safe trip.

Celebration-Kauffmann

So it seems that Mother Nature reads our log. I did the unthinkable and used the ‘b’ word here yesterday, before we reached our destination. I even used it in french. She paid me back by making things very interesting last night. We had a nice dinner, chili and chips, and were sitting back in the cockpit before we started …

Lady

At 0120AST 18Nov12 sailing vessel Lady cleared the outer pair of entrance buoys to North Sound, Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands, therein fulfilling another epic voyage. Departing Hampton VA 9Nov12 in extreme weather conditions, dictated by the unreasonable insurance lobby, LADY sailed parallel to the Virginia shoreline to our inevitable destiny, THE GULF STREAM. Bravely charging eastward, into the coordinates …

Celebration-Kauffmann

I think it was Don Street who said that to get to the Caribbean from the US East Coast, you “go east until the butter melts, then turn south”. Well, we reached the Butter Longs last week and yesterday, the Power Bar Lats. This is the lat where a Power Bar at room temp is reduced to droopy, gooey, oily …

Lady

Saturday November 17th, 2012 We are all excited that this is our last day at sea – not nearly as much napping as some days. The wind is pretty good, but from the south-east.  We need to head east of south to make Virgin Gorda, so we have been using the assist of the engine to help us point higher …

Celebration-Kauffmann

Hi All, A very squally day today for Steve’s birthday. He only got a power bar for lunch today and maybe for dinner, too. I do have a bag of Oreo’s stashed for the occasion, if only I could get to them without falling headfirst into the cabinet under the sette. I think we’ll celebrate when we get to the …

Sapphire

Today was another great day! Bob had a huge fish on the line.  It took forever to get it in!  It jumped at first, and to me looked slim, definetly not a Mahi.  When he finally got it reeled in to where we could see it, it was a 5 1/2 ft Sailfish!! He was beautiful.  They immediately put out …

Celebration-Kauffmann

Beautiful day of sailing. Nice breeze right from this morning even though we thought we’d motor most of the day. Two fresh Mahi-Mahi in the larder, everyone showered  so we even smell ok. The only bad…if we can call it that is we did not quite get far enough east before the wind kicked around from the east, soon to …

Lady

Friday November 16th, 2012 It was great that the wind finally picked up enough that at midnight the engine was turned off  and stayed off this time (I’s had to re-start it a couple of times during my watch when it filled in and died ten minutes later) and those sleeping had a quiet night.  We’d been motor-sailing for over …

Sapphire

We had a beautiful day! Caught one “baby” wahoo and let him go. Then 2 Mahi’s struck at once. While Bill was getting Fred’s in, Bob was holding his away from the boat until Bill was ready.  Unfortunately, he got off the hook. Both were big, the one Fred did catch was appox. 35 lbs. At our current speed, we …

Celebration-Kauffmann

Hello All, Another exciting day here on the good ship Celebration. The weather is much warmer and we’re getting back into our sunscreen habits after many months of not worrying about it. Everyone is wearing shorts and t-shirts, no shoes. I had promised Steve that it would be at least  month before I started to complain about the heat, but …

Lady

Friday November 15th, 2012 I was concerned the other day when I realized that we were not going to arrive at Virgin Gorda in time for the Salty Dawgs welcome party that the Bitter End Yacht Club is hosting.  I mentioned it during one of our Salty Dawg radio chats and was really pleased to hear that I had missed …

Magic III

Magic III: Nov 14 @1800 hr. (day 6); we are N 27 33 & W 70 16. We had 2 days of heavy winds of NE 20-25, gusting to 30kt & 10-12′ seas. In order to make the ride more comfortable we sailed most of this period in a S & SW instead of SE direction. Nov 13 noon, winds …

Lady

Yes, I know I titled yesterday’s post as day 6, but one tends to lose track of the days. I had great wind during last night’s peaceful watch. A ship crossed paths with us just before the end of my watch, so I woke Charlie, and after talking by radio, both vessels altered course to port, so that we passed …

Celebration-Kauffmann

Hello All, We finally had to start the motor, after 5 1/2 days of pretty good sailing. So we’re running the watermaker to top the tank and freezing the holding plate in the fridge. It’s been a pretty uneventful trip so far, but now that were motoring, Hjlmr, our electronic auto helm is misbehaving. Hjlmrsen, the windvane steering, has been …

Sapphire

The fact that this windy world is largely covered with water obviously means man was meant to sail.  Author Unknown